Are you sure this isn't Friday the 13th? The calendar says it's the 11th, so that doesn't explain how Tiger Woods can shoot a 76 in the Masters and on the same day, the Kansas City Royals become the first team to start the season 8-0 since the World Champion Cincinnati Reds. Oh, and the Pirates won again and the Expos and Mets were playing in Puerto Rico. Strange days, man. Strange days.

So what do you think about these Royals? Is this real or will they slide back down like the liquid wax of a lava lamp? Some guy named Runelvys Hernandez pitched his third great game today and is 3-0. His ERA is 0.46. Jason Grimsley with his gaudy 33-41 career mark with his career 4.75 ERA, pitched a perfect 8th Inning and now has a relief ERA of 1.80. Mike MacDougal posted his sixth straight save in as many chances. As Butch says to Sundance in the movie, "Who are these guys?"

It's not exactly like these Royals are spanking the baseball in their 8-0 start. Their best player, Mike Sweeney is batting .240. Their leadoff hitter, Michael Tucker, is batting .176. Ugh! They have a former shortstop playing Right Field (Desi Relaford) and is batting .167. Can you imagine if they were hitting too? They have five pitchers with an ERA under two runs per nine innings. They are just playing great.

For years I wondered why the Boston Red Sox would keep catching Tony Pena during some good years in the early 90's. I mean, I watched a lot of those games and the guy couldn't hit himself out of a paper bag. But I do remember him coming out to the mound and having this look on his face like he was in charge and that pitcher better listen up. He was the man whether he could hit or not. Now he is managing this Royals team and has them believing that this isn't a fluke and I believe him.

For you cynics out there, yes, the Royals did get fat on the Tigers and the rebuilding Indians and have the rebuilding Indians for another four more games. But still, you do have to win those games and do so often or you are not going to play in October. The Royals played bad teams in the past and they were always worse. It is to their credit that they are now beating up on those teams.

In the reverse direction are those Detroit Tigers. They have started the season 0-9. Ugh! They could lose 110 to 120 games this season. The entire coaching staff is from the Tigers glory days. Trammell manages and I imagine his head will be asked for soon.

The ineptness of the Tigers is unbelievable. In their first eight games, the team is batting .140. The TEAM is batting .140. They have scored 14 runs in 8 games. They only have two hitters on the whole TEAM with a batting average over .200! Oh my.

At the same time, the Tigers team ERA is 5.31 runs per nine innings. And if you think it's just hitting and fielding, how about this stat: The Tiger pitching staff has given up 88 runs in 83 Innings but only 48 of them have been earned. But it isn't the amount of errors that the team is making as they have only made four errors in eight games but they must have been REALLY bad errors if the four errors resulted in 40 unearned runs! Holy smokes!

I know. I know. It's early yet. But it's still fun to see what is happening around the league. The Royals look like contenders and the Tigers look like they will not win any games this year.